The SitePoint Forums have moved.

You can now find them here.
This forum is now closed to new posts, but you can browse existing content.
You can find out more information about the move and how to open a new account (if necessary) here.
If you get stuck you can get support by emailing forums@sitepoint.com

If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

I'm working on a site for a client who wants some features that are best implemented using DHTML, such as up and down text and the text moving in from the left right and top of the screen. I've read somewhere before that 3.0 generation browsers aren't Y2K compliant. Does this mean that I can comfortably build this site utilizing DHTML w/4.0 browsers in mind?

I already use DHTML a lot, but I'm always careful as to not exclude the audience that is still using 3.0 browsers.

The 3rd generation browsers can't handle most DHTML. Netscape 3.X can handle image rollovers but no CSS. IE 3.X can hadnle some CSS but chokes on rollovers. You can use 4th Generation browsers and be cutting off less than 10% of the market but if your scripts degrade properly then even version 1 browsers shouldn't have a problem.

Windows 95/98 and Windows NT 4.0 aren't Y2K compliant as shipped from Microsoft. Both require patches and Service Packs to be compliant. It doesn't stop millions of people from using their computers without these updates. 3rd Generation Browsers are the same way. They have problems in their scripting engines, with security certificates, and they can't handle more advanced content. Still people use them. IE 5 has been out for over 2 years and people still think it was just released. The distribution method of browsers and their large size doesn't lend itself to rapid adoption among the masses. Communicator 4.7 and IE 5 both take several hours to download and install at 28.8K for the full packages. You can get them on CD but most people don't know that. Even with IE 5.0 the CD based installation has to logon to the net to download Shockwave and Flash support at the least. Until we get truly componentized browsers where the entire thing can be downloaded in less than 20 minutes at 28.8K, people won't download it without being forced. As it is people must wait almost 2 years to get the new browser in the operating system at least on Windows machine. Windows 98 shipped with IE4 in late 1997. Windows 98Se shipped with IE5 in late 1999 and now we have Windows 2K with IE 5. Microsoft is beta testing 5.5 which will probably ship with Windows Millienium this summer. I figure it will be 2002, 2003 before Microsoft ships IE6 packaged within an OS. With the way Navigator 5 is going it may be that long before we can see how well the gecko slithers.